Chapter Nine
Opportunities
Exchanging the learning units for a bunch of weak and sickly Iron Badges had certainly thawed things between Nellie and her hosts.
Unfortunately, that didn’t mean the diplomatic work was over, but it had at least started. The following evening, Nellie was invited to a dinner party in her honor, which she accepted politely, even as she groaned internally.
One advantage of remaining on the station for a bit longer was that she was encouraged to explore the college a bit more. She was even allowed to bring an attendant with her if she wished.
“Are you sure you can see through that thing?” Nellie subvocalized to Berenice.
The Merchant had recolored her armor white and was wearing a white veil over her face as she walked along just behind and one step to the left of Nellie.
“As clear as day,” Berenice replied. “I must remember this trick for negotiations. If they can’t see my face, they can’t read my expression.”
Nellie worked her way from one lab to another, visiting each of the projects she had thought sounded interesting during her tour. In most cases, the presentation was merely a few words and perhaps a demonstration from the researcher behind the research, but she did get the chance to talk more in-depth with those working on something she understood.
Several of the projects had prototypes or similar items, and when possible, she attempted to purchase the items or a copy of the research to take back to the Imperium with her. None of them had said yes, but Nellie had started with things the Sagacity valued the most highly and worked down from there.
Berenice was there to whisper suggestions and prices that Nellie would then convey to the person in question.
Their Sagacity escort seemed to consider it amusing to watch the ‘Sage’ get turned down repeatedly.
Just after taking a break for a drink and a couple of hours before the start of the formal dinner, they arrived at the final place on her list. It was the small corner lot containing a Junior Professor’s research building. Unlike the others around it, this one seemed to be entirely devoid of any decorative features. It was purely there for the work.
It was one of the things that caught Nellie’s eye in the first place.
Their escort didn’t bother to knock, simply opening the door and screaming inside for the researcher to present themselves to the Sage immediately.
The man who emerged looked every bit the picture of the distracted scientist. He was thin, clearly forgetting to eat more often than he remembered, and his wild hair stuck out at random angles from his head, which was partially obscured by a complicated set of goggles pulled down over his eyes. The bottom half of his face was hidden below a mask that seemed to hiss every time he took a breath.
“Yes? Yes? Yes?” He looked around, bleary-eyed and confused. “Who or what is a Sage?”
“Fool!” The escort thundered, swinging a slap at the back of the man’s head.
He ducked absently and peered at Nellie.
“Who are you?” His voice hissed out of the mask.
“I’m Nellie Bonne Chance,” Nellie replied with an amused smile. He looked like something out of a cartoon, with stained and burned robes showing something like a string vest through the holes. “I’d like to hear about your research.”
“I know, I know,” He waved his hands. “Pointless, waste of resources, yada yada. I’m not switching to another focus. I am this close!” He raised his hand, thumb, and forefinger so far apart that it looked painful.
“That doesn’t look very close,” Nellie pointed out.
“You should have seen where I started from!” He waved both arms vaguely to suggest huge distances.
“Might I come inside and have a look at how you are doing?” Nellie asked.
“If you like, but try not to touch things, I am shockingly disorganized.” He turned and wandered back inside, muttering to himself about a spare pair of goggles.
Bemused but enjoying herself immensely, Nellie followed him inside.
He was not lying about the state of the place.
Nellie had seen TV shows about hoarders with less densely packed spaces. Every inch of everywhere was piled with datapads, technical boards, printouts, and old clothes.
There was more than an element of smell to the place as well.
“Thank you for nanite senses I can turn off,” Berenice muttered as she followed behind Nellie.
They pushed on, arriving in the central room. It, at least, was clean. There was still clutter everywhere, but it was spread out around a central chair and table. The table itself was scored and pitted from several explosions, and the parts for his project were balanced on a seemingly random selection of junk.
The center of the table, where the man was once more hunched over and working, showed a small black square segmented into nine smaller cubes. Lights flickered within as he ran a probe of some sort over the outer surface.
“Interesting place you have here,” Nellie noted.
“Oh, you are still here?” He looked surprised. “No one makes it past the entrance, normally.”
“Did you do that to scare people off?” Nellie asked.
“No, but cleaners and rubbish removal cost extra, and I have no money to spare if I want to finish this project before I go bankrupt.” He looked at a calendar on the wall. “Huh, that is in three days. I really need to get back to work.”
“This is the latest prototype of the new storage matrix?” Nellie asked, winding her senses up to maximum to analyze the object. The auras it showed were dense and overlapping, forcing her to take a few seconds to sort the information.
“Yes, not much to see without my spare goggles, but I think I sold them last week.” He shrugged.
“That’s fine, I can see plenty.” Nellie peered at the object. “You have a flaw in the construction on the rear, bottom left sub-cube. Did you know?”
“What?” He spun it over and had a look, frowning and adjusting his goggles before swearing. “Ah, fuck me!”
“You will not swear before the Sage!” The attendant had finally braved the entryway and was looking as green as they were outraged.
“It’s fine,” Nellie waved the man away.
“How in the stars did you find that?” the goggle-wearing man was still staring at the tiny imperfection. “And without goggles.”
“Nanite improved senses,” Nellie told him. “I can see lots of energy and magnetic signatures. The imperfection was disturbing several of them.”
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“Oh! You are one of those Nanite people?” He peered at her.
“I am, yes,” Nellie nodded.
“She’s the queen,” Berenice added levelly. “She makes those people.”
“Excellent, how is it done?” he looked excited.
“Tendrils from the back of my hand are used to inject nanites into the willing target, and they are converted from there,” Nellie explained carefully.
“And the improved senses are a part of that?” he frowned.
“They are,” Nellie nodded. “Now, what was the—”
Nellie stopped talking as the man grabbed her wrist and wiggled it back and forth before jabbing it toward his neck.
“How do you make this work?” he asked as he jiggled it up and down. “The tendrils don’t seem to be coming out?”
That seemed to be the limit for Nellie’s escort, who leaped forward, slapping the grimy hands off Nellie before attempting to punch the researcher in the face.
“Stop!” Nellie called, everyone freezing.
“Miss Sage, I am utterly horrified at what has happened. Please, we must leave immediately. I insist!” Her escort was purple with rage.
“It’s fine—”
“I insist!” they said again.
Once they were outside the lab again, the escort finally started to calm down, but they were beyond incensed. They insisted that Nellie return to the Harbinger until the start of the Formal Reception in an hour.
“One moment,” Nellie called. “I seem to have dropped my pad in the laboratory.”
“I will not allow that man in your presence again. He will have to leave!” the escort said stuffily.
“No need; my assistant will retrieve it while you escort me back to the ship,” Nellie smiled.
“Of course, Sage,” They bowed. “Right this way. I will have a guard come and ensure your assistant returns unmolested.”
“Thank you,” Nellie nodded to Berenice, who bowed and returned to the lab.
/===<<<>>>===\
Berenice pushed through the rubbish in the entrance and swore she was going to have this armor burned when she returned to the ship. If this was government work, it was exactly what she would have expected, namely, surrounded by shit and with no idea why this was even important.
She emerged back into the lab to see the weirdo slumped dejectedly in his chair, stroking the cube and sighing.
Why did the Queen have to pick this guy? A few labs back, there was a lovely lady who was working on a new type of nail coloring. That sounded extremely profitable. Also, she bathed.
“Hello again,” Berenice said, pulling off her veil.
“Oh, you were with the nanite lady, weren’t you?” he asked.
“I’m Berenice, it’s nice to meet you, Mister…?” She paused.
“Is it really?” he smiled. “That’s a first.”
“What is?” Berenice felt a bit off-center.
“Most people do not consider meeting me to be a good thing,” he shrugged but didn’t offer his name. “I have no idea why.”
Berenice wasn’t entirely sure he had picked up the hint.
“Perhaps it is a matter of presentation, Mister?” Berenice said tactfully.
“Naah, I look fine,” he sighed.
Whoosh, right over his head again, it seemed. Berenice adjusted her approach.
“You need to bathe and tell me your name,” Berenice said bluntly.
“What, at the same time?” He gasped. “We’ve only just met!”
“You… you don’t get out much, do you?” Berenice shook her head. “Never mind. We have an offer for you.”
“No point,” he waved her away. “I won’t be able to afford another prototype, so I have nothing to see you.”
“That is not—”
“Sorry, nothing I can do.” He sighed.
“But, I just want to—”
“Honestly, I’d help if I could.”
“Would you let me speak—”
“I really woul—”
Salem slapped her hand over his mouth, clamping it shut.
“Listen, Mister I-Won’t-Tell-You-My-Name, if you interrupt me one more time, I will remove your spine with my bare fucking hands!” Berenice blanched and let go. That was… not very merchant-like. She had definitely been spending too much time with Cara. “Now. Name?”
“Eugene Knox,” he said quickly before covering his mouth.
“I work for the Imperium. Do you understand what that is?”
“Yes.” He only just took his hands away before slapping them back in place.
“Would you like to leave the Sagacity forever and come work for us? You would get resources to finish this project but will have to help with other projects as well.” Berenice tried to get back on the script. This was supposed to be her enticing someone to join them, not an abduction.
“Can I get nanites?” He asked before slapping his hands over his mouth again.
“If you swear loyalty to the Queen, yes,” Berenice said before remembering that it should be Queens, not Queen. “But it comes with conditions.”
“I get the fancy eyes, though, right?”
“Yes, you do, and more bes—”
“I accept! Oh, shit!” Knox paled.
“Excellent,” Berenice said through gritted teeth. “Can you make it to the ship on your own?”
“Of course. I am not some innocent, unable to cope with simple tasks!” Knox drew himself up as best he could. “Will I need to bring all of this?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely not!” Berenice said firmly. “Just you and anything you can not replace.”
“Will there be other clothing?” Knox asked, looking down at the wreck he was wearing.
“There will. And showers,” Berenice said gravely. “Mandatory ones.”
/===<<<>>>===\
Nellie smiled as the message appeared on her implant.
Berenice: He is on board and being extensively washed and cleaned before being given quarters. Eugene Knox is, without a doubt, the single weirdest individual I have ever met, and I work with four Cents in skin suits!
So that was one task accomplished.
The dinner was dull but strange. More and more of the people introduced to her were showing a common denominator. They were all people who she had been shown the labs of. Not the ones she was actually interested in, of course. She had already met them. No, these were the ones they had taken pains to point out to her. A historian, a chemist, a theoretical physicist, and on it went.
She had no idea why these people were being shown to her like some kind of jewels. From what she could see, they were not even the highest-ranking people there. It was only as she was putting them on a list to ensure she didn’t forget their names that she put it all together.
Physics, Chemistry, History, Linguistics, Botany, Biology… they were showing her how well-rounded their studies were. It was like a course list, but she could not understand why she was being shown this, as there was no chance she was going to sign up for their courses.
When the last course was served, the Dean stood to make a speech, tapping his knife delicately against his glass to make it ring.
“Firstly, I would like to thank you all for coming. It is our honor to be the first Spiral to discover a Sage in over a hundred years. This rare honor will ensure we receive much greater shares of resources from The Grand Archive in the future.”
There were cries of ‘About time!’ and ‘Praise the Archivist!.’ Everyone certainly seemed to be happy about it. Maybe that explained the strange atmosphere here tonight.
“Honored Sage,” Fairleigh turned to face her specifically. “It has been our honor to provide you with proof of our academic credentials tonight. We have shown you not only the length but also the depth of the subjects being studied here on the Benediction. I have no doubt that you would be hard-pressed to find such a varied range of studies outside of The Grand Archive itself!” That got him a few cheers while Nellie smiled politely.
“Thus, it is with great pleasure that I invite you to become a member of this faculty as Sage in Residence!” He beamed.
“Sage in residence?” Nellie asked, aware of all the eyes on her.
“Indeed!” Fairleigh beamed. “Come and join the Sagacity, and we will shower you with resources for the rest of your days. In time, you will even get your own Spiral!”
“My own Spiral?” Nellie smiled.
“Very much so!” The Dean smiled.
“Thank you for the kind offer, but I must refuse,” Nellie replied. “My people come first.”
Gasps sounded around the hall.
“You did understand we could build you your own Spiral?” Wellesley called. “A spiral… of your own.”
“It was a most generous offer, but I must respectfully decline.”
Silence fell over the hall for a long moment.
“Very well!” Fairleigh said with a bright smile. “Kindly remember, the offer is open. In the meantime, we will endeavor to prove what excellent friends we can be.”
“I look forward to friendly relations between our people,” Nellie smiled back.
Sound returned to the hall as dinner ended with awkward applause.
“Mister Morton, get the engines warmed up,” Nellie said as she walked down the hall towards the docks. “I think now would be a good time to leave the Sagacity behind for a while.”
What the fuck was that all about? Nellie wondered, feeling uncertain until she was back aboard the Harbinger again, where she finally relaxed.
“Did they really just try to steal our Queen?” Erikson growled as she arrived at the CIC.
“I think so?” Nellie shook her head.
“They think one Spiral is worth more than the entire Imperium?” Morton chuckled. “We could build one of those in a week.”
“Academics,” Nellie shrugged as she slipped into her chair. “You can never tell what they will do next.”